Method of knitting fabrics.



lTE TATES PATENT Fries.

GEORGE E. RUTLEDGE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE GEORGE D. WHITCOMB COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF KNITTING FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 644,465, dated. February 2'7, 1900. Application filed December 16, 1899- Serial No. 740,490. (No specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE E. RUTLEDGE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Methods of Knitting Fabrics, of which the following is a specification, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, forming a part thereof.

This invention relates to the method of changing in the knitting of double-ribbed fabric from comparatively c'losely knitted work to more open knitted work by dropping out or discontinuing of some of the wales, the object of the invention being to provide means for temporarily holding the stitches of the discontinued wales, so that they willnot ravel or run out during the knitting operation; and it consists in so forming the stitches immediately preceding the discontinuing of the wales to be dropped that the tension upon the material causes a binding of the yarn, which prevents the unsecured loops from readily pulling out of the loops into which they were formed.

The drawing represents a detail,greatl y enlarged, of a piece of fabric made after my improved method.

For convenience of reference I have designated the several wales of the fabric as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively, and the several rounds of knitting as 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, respectively. The knitting operation progresses from the bottom to the top, as the material is illustrated. It will be understood that the lower round 10 has been preceded by others, which are not shown. The rounds 10 and 11 show ordinary double-ribbed Work. The wales indicated by even numbers are thrown up upon the back of the fabric, and the wales designated by the odd numbers upon the front of the fabric, as it is shown in the drawing. The next round 12 is knitted in the same manner as the two preceding it, as shown, the stitches or loops of this round, which are designated with even numbers viz. 16, 18, 20, and 22bein g wrought into the back wales, and the stitches designated by odd numbersviz., 17, 19, 21, and 23-being wrought into the front wales. In the next round 13 the stitches are crossed in pairs.

Assuming that the knitting operation proceeds from left to right, the stitch 25 of a front wale is thrown'into the stitch 17 of the wale designated 3 before the stitch 26 of a back wale is thrown into the stitch 16 of the wale designated 2, and continuing on the suc ceeding stitches of the front wales, all of which for convenience I designate with odd numbers,27,29,and31,are throwninto the succeeding front-wale stitches already formedviz., 19, 21, and 23-in advance of the stitches introduced into the adjacent rearward wales 26, 28, and 30. By this means the stitches of adjacent front and back wales in the round 12 are thrown across each other in pairs, forming what is known in the art as racked work. In the next succeeding round 14 the backwale stitches 32 34 36 38 of the fragment of fabric shown, still assuming that the knitting operation proceeds from left to right, are formed in advance of the next adjacent frontwale stitches, respectively, (designated 33, 35, 37, and 39,) thereby securing the crossing of the stitches in the round designated 13 in the reverse direction from which the next pre ceding stitches have been crossed. The next step in the method is the knitting of the round 15, in which alternate back and alternate front wales are discontinued, a back wale stitch 40 being wrought into the stitch 32 of the wale designated 2, a front-wale stitch 41 being wrought into the stitch 35 of the wale designated 5, a back-wale stitch 42 being now wrought into the stitch 36 of the wale designated 6, and a front-wale stitch 43 being wrought into the stitch 39 of the wale designated 9, whereby the wales designated, respectively, 3, 4, 7, and 8 are discontinued. It will be understood, of course, that this dropping of wales will continue through such portion of the round as may be desired and that the stitches of the succeeding rounds, so long as it may be desired to continue the more open work, will constitute continuations of the wales 2, 5, 6, and 9. As the work proceeds the tension will tend to draw out the stitches 33, 34, 37, and 38. While these stitches are likely to draw out of the stitches into which they have been wrought, it will be seen that the tension upon the stitches 26, 27, 28, and 31 is to a great extentlateral and is resisted by the crossing of the yarn in the formation of these stitches, so that the tendency to ravel is checked by the binding of the crossed strands. Should any of these stitches, however, give way, the same binding act-ion is encountered in the next step backward, so that unless pressure is applied to cause the raveling to continue it will be effectively stopped.

This improved method renders it possible to proceed without interruption in the knitting of goods in which the change is made from relatively-close to relatively-open knitted fabric and is of especial value in the manufacture of articles such as sleeves for underclothing, which are provided with a cuff portion rendered elastic by being knitted with a smaller number of wales than appear in the body portion of the sleeve, and by the employment of this method a succession of such articles may be fabricated without interruption and withoutdangerof any of the dropped wales running out.

lVhile I have shown the racked stitch as being employed through two successive rounds, it is obvious that the object in view may be accomplished with greater or less certainty by employing this form of stitch in a greater or less number of rounds immediately before dropping the wales which are to be discontinned. It is also obvious that more than one round may be knitted after the racked work is formed before any of the Wales are discontinued, the result being of course that the stitches of the dropped wales will draw out back to the racked work. I do no not therefore desire to be limited to a method in which any definite number of rounds of racked work are formed or to the method of dropping the wales to be discontinued immediately after the racked work has been fabricated, the invention consisting, broadly, in

finishing the more closely knitted work with racked stitches for the purpose of temporarily holding the stitches of discontinued wales, the number of stitches wrought into the discontinued wales beyond the racked work being entirely immaterial, as they will necessarily be drawn out as soon as cast off from the needles.

While I have shown a fragment of material in which the Work is what is known in the art as one and one, the invention isapplicable to any style of knitting which forms ribs upon both sides of the fabric.

I claim as my invention-- 1. The herein-described method, in the art of knitting double-ribbed work, of changing from relatively-close work to relatively-open work, consisting in crossing the stitches in adjacent wales, in pairs, and then casting oil the stitches of the wales to be discontinued.

2. The herein-described method,in the knitting of a plurality of articles without interruption, each of such articles having a por tion more closely knitted than another portion thereof, consisting in changing from the relatively-close knitted portion of one article to the relatively-open knitted portion of the other, by casting off the stitches of the wales to be discontinued, and in forming at the completion of each article a round in which the stitches of adjacent wales are crossed in pairs.

3. The herein-described method, in the art of knitting double-ribbed work, of changing from relatively-close work to relatively-open work, consisting in crossing the stitches in adjacent wales, in pairs, in a plurality of successive rounds, and then casting off the stitches of the wales to be discontinued.

GEORGE E. RUTLEDGE.

Witnesses:

PAUL CARPENTER, E. M. KLATCHER. 

